Revolutionary QuickTime Pro 5 & 6

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Summary: Revolutionary QuickTime Pro - an eye opener
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I had the honor of writing and doing technical review for Revolutionary QuickTime Pro. This book is meant for people that have heard of QuickTime's capabilities but that may not know exactly how they can applied them in a project or what tools are needed for the job.

The authors of the book are all QuickTime experts that, just like you, we all started from square one. The good news is that this book takes you to a higher understanding without the struggles we had when we learnt about QuickTime. The book is written in plain English for the most part and tries to cover the huge gamma that QuickTime deals with. This means that although a lot of topics are covered, they are explained in simple terms (it would be impossible to get too in depth in the 345 pages that the book has). There are 12 chapters in the book covering from preproduciton all the way to deployment on various media.

If you ever wondered what's a sprite, what do you need to stream video, what are the principles of shooting QuickTime VR, how MPEG-4 will affect QuickTime, etc. or if are not sure when to choose real time streaming vs. progressive download, what applications are out there, or how QuickTime can help you deploy content for multiple audiences (in multiple languages, for example), etc., then Revolutionary QuickTime Pro is a great book.

Francesco Schiavon / co-author

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Summary: Great book about QTVR and digital movies
Review: I used this book to figure out how to make QTVR panoramas and digital movies - has some great examples and useful files on the CD. Lots of great tips and tricks, I recommend it.

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Summary: A Comprehensive Refrence for Quicktime Media Format
Review: I was one of the people in the role of technical reviewer for Revolutionary Quicktime Pro 5 & 6. I can recommend it as a comprehensive and sophisticated reference for Apples Quicktime format. It describes in depth the tools you use from capture to deployment of your Quicktime media content. It covers QuickTime's integration with a broad range of media types and the expansive methods of deployment for your Quicktime media.

Most importantly it discusses the Quicktime format in relation to the content creators needs including information for the linear filmmaker to the interactive media designer. It is an in-depth resource for any designer looking to author interactive media, QTVR, DVD or Streaming QuickTime. Each chapter also includes some excellent tutorials especially for those interested in pushing QuickTime's level of interactivity. The section on tools is particularly relevant because of the amount of software, which supports QuickTime, and this is a guide to how the developer might choose tools and resources for their particular project.

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Summary: A Must-Have Book For Quicktime Novices & Power-Users
Review: If you have any interest in or need for Quicktime as more than a simple download viewer, then START WITH THIS BOOK! I love the Visual Quickstart Book on Quicktime but this one is even better. It describes the history and powerful significance of the Quicktime development (for Windows as well as Mac), it clearly explains the amazing feature set of the dirt-cheap QuicktimePro upgrade while providing a CD packed with actual illustration material and demo projects. This book is also the Quicktime User's manual that Apple should have written. For no additional charge, you also get a frank and succinct review of virtually every type of related product including the entire Adobe digital video and web suite. Finally, on the CD you get a fully functional demo version of the premiere ($) Quicktime production product LiveStage Pro 3.1 (only the ability to save projects is disabled) along with a $ discount coupon for the full version.

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Summary: Not worth having
Review: Not worth having: confused writing, poor indexing. Buy Stern and Lettieri's "QuickTime for Macintosh and Windows" instead.

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Summary: Thorough and fun guide to Quicktime
Review: This is a great book for anyone developing digital content using QuickTime. The writing clearly shows an enthusiasm and dedication to the QuickTime platform that a beginner needs to get through the technical complexity of the product (which is greatly alleviated by third party applications, by the way). Although the publisher clearly skimped on the editorial side, I learned a lot from this book and it inspired me to explore QuickTime in more depth.

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Summary: A Must-Have Book For Quicktime Novices & Power-Users
Review: Wow. After seeing the author list for this book, I had to get a copy. You don't have to spend much time at industry events like Apple's QuickTime Live before you'll run into several of them, lecturing to the assembled. Turns out they're not just nice people who know QuickTime intimately well, they're also great authors!

This book is a solid introduction to the underpinnings of QuickTime and many of the applications empowered by its multimedia abilities. While other books, such as Steven Gulie's QuickTime for the Web or the QuickTime Developers Series might offer more focused explorations of certain complex areas of QuickTime, no book I've found provides as good an overview of the technology - and it's use in the real world - than this book. If you're new to QuickTime and wondering what it can do, this book will be an eye opener. And it'll make you laugh too.